Justin Morales founded the Silk City Flick Fest in 2009 in Manchester. In 2010, he moved the festival to Hartford. In 2011, it became the city's only indie film festival, with the demise of the Hartford International Film Festival.

Things just keep on changing for the scrappy little film fest. This year it's got a new name and a new home. The newly re-christened Hartford Flick Fest will be held Thursday to Sunday, Dec. 6 to 8, at the new Spotlight Theatre on Front Street in Hartford.

It's not a surprising move. A few months ago, Morales snagged a job as the front-of-house manager at the Front Street Bistro, inside the Spotlight's lobby. This gives him the one of the oddest job combos in Hartford: film festival director-bartender.

The fest this year has a combination of shorts and features, local favorite feature films — which were filmed in the city and have played to packed houses in previous screenings — and movies that are new to the Hartford market.

'Maybe Tomorrow'

Michael Wolfe likes writing stories about people making things right between themselves and finding closure. "Maybe Tomorrow," showing Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 3:30 p.m., is one of those stories.

"I am drawn to stories about the human capacity for change, about can people change as they get older, and what it takes to serve as catalyst for that change," Wolfe said in an interview from his office in Rego Park, N.Y. "Is it ever too late to change course in life?"

The drama tells the story of a politically ambitious man who has a secret that only his two best friends know. The three men get together in a Hamptons beach house to hash out what to do about it.

Wolfe plays the friend who has the most potential to blow the secret wide open, an ex-con and drug addict. "Yeah, I'm the sketchy dude," Wolfe said, laughing. "I play volatile characters well. ... Still, Russ may be messed up in a lot of way, but in another way he's the most truthful character in the movie. He sees people as they are."

Wolfe cast the low-budget indie mostly with friends who worked for peanuts, but he also cast Christopher Shyer, of the TV show "V," in a pivotal role.

Mike Basone, a New Canaan High School graduate who went to Los Angeles Film School, returned to his home state to film "Life in Parallel," showing Friday and Sunday at 1 p.m. The drama is exactly what the title says it is, a story about a filmmaker whose life parallels the character in the movie he is making.

"I wanted to use the five stages of filmmaking as a foundation and to think about what would happen during the course of those stages during a relationship," Basone said. "The nice thing about that ... is that it already has the framework of the story laid out for you."

The stages of filmmaking are development, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution.

Basone's and his younger brother, Daniel, who studied filmmaking at Fairfield University, worked together on "Life in Parallel." "We wrote the film together. I directed it. We both produced it. I edited it," he said. It was filmed in Stamford, Norwalk, New Canaan, Darien and Greenwich.

Basone already has begun work on a web series, "Terminal B," which will be shot in Fairfield County in January. "It's kind of like 'The Office'-meets-a day in the life of an airport."

Other Titles

The fest begins Thursday with "Rising Star," a romantic drama filmed all over the city about a workaholic insurance guy and a free-spirited woman. The movie, shown Thursday at 7:30 p.m., has been shown about a half-dozen times around the city, and always draws a crowd curious about how the Insurance City stacks up as a city of romance.

At this festival, the film will be paired with "Quiet de Luxe," a magical-realist short about a lonely teen and her one true friend. It was directed by Gary Ploski, the leading man of "Rising Star." The two films should get the festival off to a fun start: Ffilmmakers will be at the screenings, which will be followed by two parties, at the Bistro and at City Steam Brewery, 942 Main St.

Another Hartford-set indie is "The Last Intervention," a raucous comedy about a dysfunctional Dominican family living in Hartford dealing with a daughter whose behavior challenges what little stability they've got. The game, energetic cast is led by Hemky Madera, who stars in the TV show "Weeds." "The Last Intervention" is the only film in the festival being screened at the Wadsworth Atheneum. It is shown Friday at 8 p.m. (Atheneum) and Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Other features at the festival are:

"For the Love of the Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival," (Friday, 3 p.m.) a documentary on a Cambridge, Mass. joint that was a jazz venue until the day an unknown folkie, Joan Baez, begged for time on its stage.

"Set for Life," a documentary about middle-aged people whose ideas of lifelong professional loyalty were challenged when their employers laid them off. (Sunday, 3:30 p.m.)

"Sanctuary," a drama about a middle-aged man trying to make sense of the baffling loss of his wife. (Saturday, 8 p.m.)

"Steam Driven," a steampunk story about factory workers in love. (Sunday, 4:45 p.m.)

HARTFORD FLICK FEST will be on Thursday to Sunday, Dec. 6 to 9, at the Spotlight Theatre on Front Street in Hartford, with one screening at Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main St. in Hartford. Details, tickets and a list of all features and shorts: http://www.hartfordflickfest.com.